Deep Snow, Ice Defying Plows

Many Connecticut and Long Island Roads Won't Be Open for Days; In Bridgeport, a 'Disaster Area'

ENLARGE

Joe Selvaggio, left, and Tim McLaughlin work on Monday to dig out a car stuck on southbound Nichols Road in the Selden section of Long Island.
Joel Cairo for The Wall Street Journal

By

Joseph De Avila,

Mara Gay and

Will James

Feb. 11, 2013 10:27 p.m. ET

BRIDGEPORT, Conn.—Many roads in the state's largest city won't be clear of snow for another week, as abandoned cars still littered streets and municipal officials struggled to get enough heavy equipment deployed.

From Long Island to the southern-central portion of Connecticut, cities and towns battled to address the aftermath of the epic storm last weekend that dumped up to 40 inches of snow in some spots.

After rain Monday washed a layer of snow from the streets, plow crews in some areas found themselves hammering away at three to five inches of rough ice.

The easternmost section of the Long Island Expressway opened Monday after closing for most of Sunday, but many streets in Suffolk County were still treacherous.

Highways were also open in Connecticut, but snow continued to clog thoroughfares in cities such as New Haven, where officials set up police checkpoints to keep roads free of unnecessary traffic while cleanup continued.

The official response drew criticism from some residents.

"They're not doing a good job," said Ny Rivera, a 20-year-old, student at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport. "If I'm stumbling and sliding around here, no one could say they're doing this well."

Few areas were as in as bad shape as Bridgeport, where equipment shortages and abandoned vehicles slowed progress. Residents might have to wait until Sunday to see the remaining 800 miles of impassable streets cleared, said Bill Finch, the mayor of Bridgeport, which has 145,600 residents.

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"This is what a disaster area looks like," Mr. Finch said. "We do have about 100 roads that are passable, and we do use that term loosely."

Mr. Finch said that the city didn't have enough heavy construction equipment necessary to clear the roads and the state has been overwhelmed by requests for help from towns throughout Connecticut.

Gov. Dannel Malloy said Monday in Bridgeport that it would take a full week to clear all of the state's major roadways. The state's larger cities have been particularly hard-hit by the storm.

"I think the more urban it is, the greater the concentration of individuals, the greater the concentration of cars," Mr. Malloy said.

In Hartford, about 95% of roads had at least one lane cleared. A parking ban remained in effect, but city officials aimed to lift that in time for schools to open on Wednesday.

"We can't do that till we have sufficient clearing of the streets," Mayor Pedro Segarra said.

The situation wasn't much better in many Long Island communities, where commuters woke up Monday to roads jammed with thick layers of ice and slush. "A lot of cars stuck, a lot of roads not plowed, mainly the side roads," said Chris Bornemann, 32, of Port Jefferson, as he put gas in his car after a rough drive around the Ronkonkoma area.

He said he worried the uneven ice that coated the streets was going to damage his car. "It's like potholes," he said.

The sheer quantity of snow also presented a challenge for cleanup. Tom Croci, the supervisor of Islip Town, said the municipality's regular plows weren't powerful enough to move such heavy, wet snow in such volumes.

"It created this terrible situation in which the plows that were out couldn't move the snow because they were lighter vehicles," he said.

Using some of the town's heavier equipment, as well as state vehicles and those of private contractors, the municipality was able to open all 1,200 miles of its roads by Monday, Mr. Croci said.

But passage on many of them remained narrow and needed to be widened.

In hard-hit Brookhaven Town, Supervisor Ed Romaine urged patience as highway employees cleared roads. Heavy-construction equipment was on the way from nearby Nassau County and upstate counties to clear the most troublesome roads.

About 200 miles of town roads will still need to be plowed on Tuesday.

"We haven't seen a storm of this magnitude in 35 years. It doesn't get cleaned up overnight," Mr. Romaine said.

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